Andrey Golubev Becomes First Kazakh Singles Tour Champion

Winning the diminished but still prestigious title in Hamburg, unseeded Andrey Golubev became the first Kazakh player to win an ATP or WTA singles title.

Unseeded Golubev beat #3 seed Jurgen Melzer 6-3, 7-5 to claim his first career title.

The win boosts his ATP ranking 45 places, from #82 to #37.  A strong showing at the Toronto and Cincinnati Masters events, and Golubev could be seeded at the US Open.

Combined with Yaroslava Shvedova's doubles championship at Wimbledon, this has been a pretty spectacular month for Kazakh tennis.  Kazakhstan's previously discussed mission to put themselves on the tennis map by paying for the nationality of Russian players has been more of a success than anyone could have expected.

Unlike Mardy Fish, who has won back-to-back titles in these past two weeks, Golubev will not be pulling off consecutive finals--he already lost in the first round of Gstaad to fellow Kazakh import Yuri Schukin.